Johnson, who had a walk-on part in EastEnders in 2009, revealed on Thursday that he had recruited prime minister David Cameron to try and rescue the deal after Mark Thompson, the BBC director general, informed him last week that the move had foundered.

A senior BBC insider blamed technical issues for the failure to do a deal to move the flagship BBC1 soap from Elstree, north-west London, the Olympic site in Stratford, after 12 months of secret talks with local officials. "It's sad. It would have been great," the source said.

However, City Hall said any technical issues had been solved and claimed the deal broke down because of BBC snobbery about a move to the East End.

The BBC insider said that issues with the move included a 23ft wall around the proposed site for the EastEnders set, which would have interfered with sight lines. The site will host broadcasting facilities during the 2012 Games.

By 2015, 30% of filming time would have been lost because of air traffic from nearby City airport, compared with 5% at Elstree, the BBC source said.

EastEnders airs four nights a week all year round, which means filming is constant and there is no time for delays, they added.

The BBC is also understood to have had concerns about privacy, with private homes overlooking the proposed set. The Stratford site, a leasehold, would also have cost the BBC more than Elstree, where the corporation is the freeholder.

Johnson told the London Evening Standard: "There was the chance for the BBC to show genuine commitment to the East End – an area it has harvested for audiences for decades. I'm astonished that the boss class don't see the obvious advantages of rooting a popular drama in an area it claims to portray.

"Perhaps if they seized this opportunity their plots and script lines would reflect the vibrancy and optimism of this critical part of the capital and not the relentless negativity that often comes across."

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